The Door: Your Mind is The Door of Spiritual Influence

Faith is more than a feeling or a theory. It's

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We're beginning a brand new series today called

The Door. Everybody say The Door. Door. It should

be a four -part series, but we'll see what God

wants to do, right? You just never know. But

The Door. Before we begin, let's turn in our

Bibles to Ephesians 1 .19. Up on the screen,

I'm reading out of the New Living Translation,

unless otherwise noted, okay? So let's begin.

I also pray, this is Paul, I also pray that you

will understand the incredible greatness of God's

power for us who believe him. It's good, right?

I pray that you understand. This is the Ephesians

1 prayer that Paul prays, and he's wanting us

to understand something. And I would encourage

you. to read this prayer. We've done this a few

times as a church body, but read Ephesians 1

and Ephesians 3 just for light and understanding

of God's word to be shown on you, for you to

really get, because there's a lot that needs,

you know, there's a lot that we need to know

that's not just, you know, just out of our heads.

But he's saying here, I pray that you will understand,

everybody say understand, the greatness of God's

power for us who believe. So this tells us that

God's power has direction, everybody say direction,

and purpose. Has direction and purpose. What

does this verse say? It says God's power is directed

towards who? Those who believe. God's power has

direction for us. It has a purpose for those

who believe. Who's a believer in the room? Amen.

And then what is this saying? It's saying that

when we invest our belief, faith is simply an

investment of our belief. We could boil it down

to that. But when we invest our belief in the,

not in the things of this world, but when we

invest our belief in God's word. When that carries

more weight or more value to us, our understanding

of who he is and the greatness of who he is and

his power working builds on the inside of us.

Amen? The purpose of God's power for the believer,

we'll include that in, is to what? To accomplish

God's will in the earth. God's accomplishing

thing is in the earth. He's accomplishing things,

and he wants to accomplish things through each

and every one of us. Amen? So his power has a

purpose, to accomplish his will, to carry out

his plans and purposes, heaven's business in

the earth. Now I want us to turn to the Old Testament.

In Genesis, we find a familiar story, often referred

to as Jacob's Ladder, and it reveals a truth.

Let's read. Jacob found a stone to rest his head

against and lay down to sleep. As he slept, he

dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth

up to heaven. I want you to notice that it begins

in the earth. Everybody say earth. It reached,

he said this specifically, he says earth up to

heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up

and down the stairway. And at the top of the

stairway stood the Lord. Then Jacob awoke from

his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this

place. What an awesome place this is. It is none

other than the house of God. Everybody say house

of God. The very gateway to heaven. Everybody

say gateway. Notice this distinction here that

there's the temple, the dwelling place of God,

heaven, right? And then there's a gate. There's

a staircase coming down from heaven where angels

are going up and down, carrying out the business.

So this word here, house of God, is in the Hebrew.

In Hebrew, it's bayeth. I probably slaughtered

that, but I'm just going to try it. But there's

the word, and it means house. It means household.

It means temple. It means dwelling. The gate

here is shahar. It's meaning there is an opening,

a gate or a door between heaven and earth, between

the spiritual and natural realms. Now, Jacob

saw angels moving from the temple dwelling place

of God through this door, we could say. to accomplish

God's work in the earth. And this is ultimately

a New Testament reality. This is a shadow of

a New Testament reality for the believer. Where's

the temple and dwelling place of God? We know

in Revelation 4, 1 through 2 says this, Then

as I looked, this is John, Then as I looked,

notice that he had to look to see. And there's

many things in this life, spiritual things, spiritual

truths, that you need to pay attention to and

you need to seek after to find. So he had to

look before he saw. But as he looked, he says,

I saw a door standing open in heaven. And instantly,

I was in the Spirit. This is key here. He's in

the Spirit. Everybody say Spirit. And he sees

something. He saw a throne in heaven and someone,

God, standing on it. Amen? God is where? In heaven.

But where is he also? 1 Corinthians 3 .16 Do

you not know that you are the temple of God?

And that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Look

to your neighbor and say, the Spirit of God dwells

in you. Amen. So it's important what John saw

in the Spirit, the throne room of eternity, and

inside of you, the same Spirit that raised Jesus

from the dead is what? Alive on the inside of

you. God dwells in you. His Spirit is in you

to connect you to the throne room of heaven,

to give you access by the blood of Jesus, as

we've talked about. So God is in you. You are

the temple where God the Holy Spirit lives. Amen?

And that's why we've called this series The Door,

because there's a great power that God is doing

in the earth, and He's wanting to do that through

His people. His work and his plans and his purposes

in the earth will be accomplished through you.

We are the door, but what specifically is the

door? What is the door between the spiritual

and natural realms? Remember that Jacob's ladder,

there was the opening of heaven, but then there's

also the gate. Where is this located? It's in

us, clearly. Let's continue reading. When we

turn to Matthew 16, 13 through 19, we'll see

more truth about this. It's a very interesting

story. We'll go through it each week. But there's

a lot of spiritual truth here. When Jesus came

into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked

his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I,

the Son of Man, am? So they said, some say John

the Baptist, some say Elijah, others say Jeremiah

or one of the prophets. He said to them, but

who do you say that I am? But who do you say

that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said,

you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

Amen. Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed

are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has

not revealed this to you, but my Father who is

in heaven. Flesh and blood. He didn't get this

from another person. He didn't get this in his

own head or his own imagination. Jesus says,

it came from my Father who is in heaven. Think

about it. Verse 18, And I also say to you that

you are Peter, and on this rock I will build

my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail

against it. Now I know we've done, we've went

through this passage some, and we've talked about

this before, but just to remind you, Peter's

flesh is not what the church is built on, even

though a lot of the body of Christ, kind of believes

that. But that's not what he's talking about

here. When you look at it, he's saying this rock

that he's referring to, Jesus says on this rock.

He's not saying on you. It's not flesh and blood

that revealed this to you. He's saying on this

rock. The rock is the revelation of what came

forth through Peter. It was the revelation of

Jesus being the Son of God. It's the rock of

the revelation that he's the Messiah, he's the

promised one. And also the method of delivery.

Flesh and blood, no, the Father in heaven has

given this to you. So the rock is the Messiah,

that Jesus is Lord, and then also the act of

divine revelation. We've been going through Galatians

1, and we've been talking about divine revelation

in our life group. And here it is again, over

and over through Scripture. But the rock is the

rock of the revelation and the method of delivery.

And then that's how he is going to build his

church. Not the building, not the programs, but

the people of God will be built on this foundation

of not a person, not flesh and blood. We will

be built by our testimony, the words that come

out of our mouth that Jesus is Lord. And the

fact that it didn't come from us. This message

is from him. It's a divine truth. And that's

how the church will be built. Amen? So we see

here that Peter's door, you could say, is open

to God's power. And divine truth flows out of

him to accomplish God's purpose in the earth.

Okay? When you think about it, who was hearing

this? He had people around him hearing this.

This wasn't just, you know, just words and just

a little side conversation with Peter. God was

wanting to show his disciples and everyone around

them that, look, Jesus, I am the Messiah. I am

the coming one. I am here. And he wanted to show

them that this is not You know, this is not man's

made -up imagination on how to save themselves.

And then it continues in verse 19, reveals another

truth here, and I will give you the keys of the

kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth

will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose

on earth will be loosed in heaven. A lot of times

we just read through this and don't want to stop

and... Think about what it's saying. Let's look

at this. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound

in heaven. This is not referring to the throne

room of heaven, but just the spirit realm when

we look at the word and its actual meaning. It's

saying that what you bind here on earth in the

natural, it will be bound. Spiritual things will

be bound. What you bind in the spirit, right?

Whatever you loose in the spirit on earth will

be loosed in heaven. Excuse me. So there's things,

listen, there's things available to you. There's

things for you. There's spiritual realities that...

We have authority that God has given us authority

over. As it says, we war not against flesh and

blood, but against principalities and the powers

of the evil one. This could be referring to that

also, this principle. What are keys? God gives

us keys. That means he has given his people the

method, the ability, and the authority to open

and close a door of spiritual influence in the

earth. A lot of times we want God to just kind

of like zap and do things. But he's given us

the key to bind and loose things in our lives.

A door, you could say, between the spiritual

and the natural in which he wants to do things

through. He wants to carry his plan, his purposes

through each one of us. He's given us the keys

to do that. He's given us the ability. He's given

us the method and the authority. Continue reading

in verse 21. From that time, Jesus began to show

his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and

suffer many things from the elders and chief

priests and scribes and be killed and be raised

the third day. Then Peter took him aside. and

began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you,

Lord, this shall not happen to you. Can you imagine

that? Jesus is saying something, a prophetic

word about what will take place. And all of a

sudden, Peter's like, Jesus, no, no, no, no,

no. That's never going to happen to you. Don't

say that. You know, I can see this from like

a human reasoning side. You know, Peter, he didn't

want to think that the one he loved would suffer

and die like that. Our human reasoning often

gets in the way of what God wants to do. Because

it doesn't quite fully make sense to us here

on this side of heaven. But it's never innocent.

Listen, it's never innocent to say God is wrong.

And that is word will not happen. It's never

innocent. When we stand against it, we're actually,

let's keep reading. What does it say? But he

turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.

You are an offense to me. Now, did Peter turn

into Satan? No, he didn't turn into Satan. But

his door was open to the manipulation and deception

of Satan because really that's the power that

Satan possesses. He doesn't have power over you.

He just has power to manipulate and deceive you,

to convince you that God's word will not happen

in your life. He comes to steal, kill, and to

destroy the word in you because if he can steal

the word, he can steal your future. If he can

steal the word, he can steal every good thing,

and it will eventually destroy you. He said,

get behind me, Satan. You are an offense to me.

I mean, that's a pretty bold statement, right?

To call someone Satan. No, but Jesus knew his

mission. He knew his purpose in the earth. He

knew what he was called to do, what he was going

to carry out. And he recognized that, hey, this

is a lie from the pit of hell. He's saying, get

behind me, Satan. You're an offense to me. So

Peter's door, he's open to the power of Satan.

His manipulation and deception then flows out.

And why does this happen? Scripture tells us,

he continues on in verse 23, Jesus tells Peter,

for you are not mindful of the things of God,

but the things of men. The Greek word here means

to think, to set one's mind on, to have a mindset

of. So you see from this story that you are empowered

by what you set your mind on. That's what will

have influence in your life, is what you have

your mind on. Your mind does not generate the

power that some will have you believe. Your mind

doesn't generate this power. It opens the door

to either the power of heaven or the power of

hell. It opens the door of influence over your

life. Because you are empowered by what you set

your mind on. Your mind is the door to spiritual

powers. And we decide which power influences

our lives. We are the door of influence in us,

but then it's also the things that happen in

us. Listen, it impacts those around us. This

is how evil is carried out in the world. It's

not Satan, like, jumping on people and forcing

them, you know, unless they're... But even then

we see that it's like they're being manipulated

and deceived and they're opening the doors of

their hearts and their minds to being deceived

and to carry out whose will in the earth, Satan's

will in the earth. And that brings evil to people

and evil in the world. And it impacts the world

around us. So how do we open the door? How do

we open our door, our mind, to the power of God?

How is this accomplished? Well, we must continually

direct our thoughts and desires away from earthly

things, right, to the things of God. We must

direct our thoughts. Did you know that you have

self -control, that that's a fruit of the Holy

Spirit? You have control to direct what you think.

You can't control every thought. that, you know,

buzzes in your head, but you can control which

one stays there. You can't control how many birds

fly over your head, but you can control which

one, you know, makes a nest in your hair. Right?

You must continually direct your thoughts and

desires to the things of God and away from the

things of earth. And then this gets us to our

main text here on how we apply this truth. In

Romans 12, 2, it says this, And do not be conformed

to this world. Do not be. It's a command. Do

not be conformed to this world. Be in the fashion,

in the likeness. That's what that word means,

conformed. Don't be conformed to this world,

but be transformed. Everybody say transformed.

How? Is God zapping you with it? Is it just hitting

you by chance? Is the power of God, is transforming

power of God just falling on you? Or how does

real transformation, how does God transform you?

How does the kingdom of God operate and bring

transformation in your life? It's through the

door of your mind. A renewed mind. Our mind's

renewal then determines our exposure and experience

of God's power. To the level of your renewed

mind is the level of your experience of his power

in your life. Most people won't. God to just

intervene in their human affairs, and they only

turn to Him in crisis. And then they get mad

when they don't see God's power fall and change

the circumstance. When God has given us a key

to change the circumstance, He's made it available

to us, to all those who are in Him. He's not

holding out on His children. Just like you wouldn't

hold out on your children. Whatever you bind

on earth will be bound in heaven, in the spirit.

Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in

heaven. He's given you the keys, given you the

method, given you the authority. And this is

connected to our minds. This is connected to

our renewed mind. This word transformation is

the Greek word metamorphou. It means to transform

or to change form. It's meaning God's power to

change temporal things. Do you realize, I mean,

a lot of people don't doubt God's power and his

ability. But we need to know that his power is

for the believer, as we said in the beginning.

His power is for you, for you to understand it,

right? His power is to change temporal things.

And I hope this encourages you as much as it

does me. But temporal things, listen. Things

that are temporal, we could define them as subject

to change. The things in this earth, the circumstance,

the immovable things, the impossible things,

listen, are subject to change by the power of

God. The gates of hell cannot prevail against

the power of God. The gates of hell can't prevail

against the people of God because the power of

God flows through the people of God. You are

the temple. You are the door in which God does

his business and heaven does its business in

the earth. And when you see something that the

enemy loves to deceive and manipulate and make

you think all kinds of things like this can't

be changed. You need to laugh and say, if it's

temporal, if it's not an eternal thing, it's

subject to change in Jesus' name. I take it captive

to the obedience of Christ. I cast it down. I

have authority. I bind you. Come on. Subject

to change. This word, this metamorphoo, is not

just referring to the natural change. Like we

get our English word metamorphosis, talking about

the change between a caterpillar and a butterfly.

And we see those things can naturally occur in

the human life, in our lives and in our surroundings

by the power of God. We can see things restored

to the natural order of things. We see restoration,

we see healing. It's a restored to God's original

plan and will, right? What enemy has stolen,

it's being restored. It's being made whole by

his power. These are incredible things, but it

goes on. This transformation, it goes on. And

we see it here at the transfiguration of Jesus,

this same word, this Greek word is used. And

listen what this says. Now after six days, Jesus

took Peter, James, and John, his brother, and

he led them up on a high mountain by themselves.

Why would he do that? Because sometimes you need

to leave the things of earth alone. You need

to get away from them in order to experience

the higher things. God calls you up. He's calling

you up today. to a higher revelation of transformation

power. Come on. Can you imagine Jesus just saying,

come up here. Come on. Let's go on a trip. In

Revelation, he's like, come up here. Come on.

Come on up. And this happens in the spirit. It's

not a physical thing. You can come up higher

wherever you are. Because if the Spirit of God

is in you, you have access to the throne room

of heaven. You are seated in heavenly places.

You are seated with Him at the right hand of

the Father. That's not far from you. It's not

far from you, and it's not foreign to the believer.

Don't let Satan convince you that it's foreign

to you. Because we all have heard from God. If

you're a believer, listen, if you're a Christian,

you have heard from God. You want a word, like

all these things, you want the clouds to open,

you want the ground to shake. No, if you're a

believer, a genuine born -again Christian, You

have heard God and felt the weight of the reality

of divine revelation come on you, the weight

of the cross, the weight of the resurrection.

So stop acting like it's foreign to you and God's

holding out on you. The same way that you heard

him then is the same way you will hear him now.

There are exceptions. There are exceptions, like

we looked at in the life of Paul. But he was

a very extraordinary man on passion for God,

but with the wrong doctrine. And in his zealousness,

God zealously sought him out and called him out

by his marvelous grace, right? Just like he calls

each one of us out by his marvelous grace. It's

the same method, same thing. Come up high on

the mountain by themselves. He led them. And

God wants to lead you. And he was, Jesus, was

transfigured. Here's this word, metamorphue,

before them. Get this, his face shone like the

sun. And his clothes became as white as light.

Symbolically, the face represents your identity.

Your clothes are what people see. Your testimony.

Everybody say identity. Everybody say testimony.

What is being transfigured here? What is being

changed? His identity. His testimony. And behold,

a bright cloud overshadowed them and suddenly

a voice came out of the cloud. Woo! This is my

beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear him.

Don't forget, Jesus lived a life as an example

for you and I. Transformation is available, but

it's more than just... natural things being restored

to their original order. The transformation available

is the freedom from this world. Free from the

world's destruction and consequences and just

the way it works. We don't have to accept that.

We're free from this system. We're a peculiar

people, a royal priesthood. Transformation, too,

it goes on. It's changed into God's very image.

We are image bearers of Christ. Amen? We are

in Him. And we carry His image to experience

the glory of God, to be manifest and demonstrated

in our life as a testimony. The glory of God

and the realities of heaven on display in your

life. That's the transformation available to

us. But renewing our minds, listen, is how we

open the door. Remember what the verse said.

You will be transformed. Why? Because that's

my will. Everything that happens in the earth

is not God's will. Right? Everything that happens

in the earth is not according to God's will.

We renew our minds. Listen, it opens the door.

Because see, there's what God wants to do. There's

heaven's side and there's our side. And that's

why he's called us and that's why he's indwelled

us to empower us to co -labor with him. We're

called to be co -laborers with him. You're not

carrying out the work. His yoke is easy. His

burden is light because he's providing it all.

free moral agents. That means he respects your

decisions. God respects your decisions and your

desires. So he asks us to come and enter into

his life. He asks you to yoke up with him. He

asks you to open your door to him and allow his

power to radically transform your life. And through

this series, this is what we're going to be talking

about the next three weeks. We're going to discuss

more and more on how to renew our minds and allow

the power of God to flow through us. But I just

want to quickly say, and I'm done, to renew our

minds, we must daily take control of our focus.

Get our minds off the things. We can't be more

mindful of the things of this earth than we are

the things of heaven and expect to see the power

of God on display in our lives. We must daily

take control of our focus. We must direct our

imaginations. direct our imaginations, our thoughts,

our calculative future probabilities of what

we think will happen. God uses those things to

create. He wants to do a new thing in you, and

we're going to talk about that. And to renew

our minds means that we align our words also

to the reality of God's Word. Each one of these

things, our focus, our imaginations, and our

words, listen, we have to yield them to Christ.

We have to submit them to him and say, you must

obey what the word says. Because when we don't

listen, we're being used of the enemy. It's not

innocent. It's not an innocent thing. When our

words, when our thoughts, when our imaginations

are contradicting the very word of God, it's

up to you to say, get behind me, Satan. And to

be quiet is to let Satan break through the door

and come into your life and start wreaking havoc

on everything. the lives of others, the world

around you. God's a gentleman. He respects your

decision. The enemy has come. He's roaring like

a lion, and he's ready. As soon as you give him

a crack, he's busting through like my 70 -pound

labradoodle. If I give her a crack at the door,

she's busting through. But the good news is this.

Listen. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound

in heaven. He's given you the keys to the kingdom

of God. He's given you the keys to the spirit

realm. But you must choose. You are the temple.

Your mind is the door to spiritual influence

in your life. So you choose which power has access

to your life, your family, and the world. I'm

going to ask you and I'm done. Will you carry

out God's purposes? Will you carry out God's

purposes or Satan's? His plans for you are good.

His plans for you are life and life to the fullest.

Who is your door open to? This online worship

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